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A well-dressed woman walks into Ripper Street’s picturesque brothel, wanting her old job back. But brittle madam Long Susan won’t hear of it. Next, we see this dainty ex-prostitute weeping, wandering the streets covered in blood. It’s the start of another frustratingly woolly story that never reaches the heights that it should, despite its little nuggets of gold, notably a tough-looking Jerome Flynn as the sidekick of emotionally shuttered DI Edmund Reid.

Still, there are enjoyable bits of history – London’s Underground system is transforming the city as heaving slums make way for its construction, led by a zealous councillor (Paul McGann).

About this programme

4/8. The clearing of a slum for a new railway reveals the scene of a gruesome murder, and the team's only hope is a disturbed young woman who holds the key to a web of conspiracy that seems to involve an ambitious local councillor, Long Susan and a benevolent doctor from the Lark Rise asylum. But can the witness be trusted? Crime drama, starring Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn and Adam Rothenberg, with appearances from Paul McGann (Withnail & I) and Emma Rigby (Prisoners' Wives).